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June 13, 2005

More than a few noteworthy SCOTUS criminal justice rulings

Of course, SCOTUSblog and How Appealing are the places to go to get the scoop on today's work by the Supreme Court. As detailed in this early post by Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog, the High Court issued some noteworthy criminal justice decisions today: (1) in Miller-El v. Dretke, a Texas death row case involving peremptory challenges, through "a 6-3 ruling written by Justice David H. Souter, the Court rejected Texas' claims that the strikes were not done to discriminate against [black] jurors," and (2) in Wilkinson v. Austin, "the Court unanimously refused to impose stricter procedural limits on decisions by state officials to place a prisoner in a 'super-maximum security' prison."

UPDATE: In a busy day continuing a busy SCOTUS month, the Court also issued opinions in the capital case of Bradshaw v. Stumpf and in Johnson v. California, another case involving preemptory challenges.

And, of course, a big day at the Supreme Court would not be complete without at least a few more Booker-inspired GVRs. This morning I count a six such GVRs on this order list.

Of all the decisions handed down today, I am most intrigued (though not really surprised) by Austin. I hope in a post later today to be able to report on any especially noteworthy aspects of any of these criminal justice decisions. Readers are encouraged to do the same in the comments.